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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28145820">Drunken Words and Broken Promises</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seventypercentstupid/pseuds/Seventypercentstupid'>Seventypercentstupid</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark one shots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with Sad Ending, Breakup, Drinking, F/M, alchohol</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:21:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28145820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seventypercentstupid/pseuds/Seventypercentstupid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>MC returns after a trip and finds out Tony broke a promise to her</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tony Stark/Main Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark one shots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2061849</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Drunken Words and Broken Promises</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>I walked up the cold steps of our house. I had just gotten back from the airport after a 2 week-long business trip. I asked Tony to go with me but he insisted to stay, saying that there were more pressing issues at hand. I didn’t pay any mind to it and brushed it off as he just wanted to stay back in New York, maybe tired of flying around as he normally did.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tony?” I called out to our dark bedroom.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No response.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I knocked on the bathroom door before opening it to see if he was there. He wasn’t.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I went down to the kitchen, expecting to find him there in the middle of a midnight snacking session. Nothing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Suddenly, I heard the sound of metal clanging together and instantly knew where he was. I slowly crept down to the basement where his lab was, fearing the worst. Deep down I knew what was happening, I knew what I was going to see when I walked into the room. Yet, I continued on. My desire to see him was stronger than the urge to stop my own heartbreak.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey…” I said softly as Tony, disheveled as can be, came into view. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was hunched over a table with dozens of spare parts scattered across it. It looked like it had barely been touched but I didn’t want to question him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“H-,” he cleared his throat, “hi.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His voice was hoarse and raspy, unusually so. I remembered it from somewhere but couldn’t put my finger on it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How long have you been down here?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around his torso from behind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I found it odd when he didn’t lean back into my touch like he usually did, or when he didn’t hum happily like he always did when we had any form of physical contact. Instead, he stiffened up, shied away from my arms like he couldn’t stand my slightest touch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, urm,” he cleared his throat again, “not super long, 15, maybe 18 hours?” He said and continued to stare and the bits and pieces on the table but not moving or touching anything. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You should come to bed soon, It feels so empty without you…” I said lovingly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just a bit longer.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I figured it out. </span>
  </em>
  <span>I figured it all out. At first, it was all just little pieces of the picture scattered in my mind like the objects on his work table but now...now I fully understood what was going on. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I could smell it on his breath, I could smell it on his clothes. Hell, the whole lab smelled of it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I took a moment to contemplate whether I </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>wanted to bring the subject up right then, right there. Whether I wanted to start a conversation that undoubtedly would end in heartbreak and pain for me, I wasn’t too sure about him considering what he’d most likely done. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I pulled away from him and took several steps back, “you started drinking again, didn’t you?” I asked bluntly, deciding that for both our sakes, I needed to have this conversation while I could still bring myself to.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” His head snapped around to face me and his eyes stared into mine, as if he was trying to find an answer in my eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tell me, did you or did you not start drinking again?” He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off, “tell me the truth or I’m leaving,” I said seriously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He scoffed loudly, “go ahead, leave! That’s all you know how to do anyway.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Excuse me?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You heard me,” he stepped closer, his eyes darker than I’d ever seen, “I should’ve known you’d leave me too, you’ve left everything you’ve ever had in your life.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“When have I ever given you the thought that I’d leave you? I love you!” I emphasised</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His lips turned up into a smirk, not unlike one an evil villain would give and he said those three little words that he knew would hurt me the most, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>you left home</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bad memories and once forgotten thoughts rushed back into my mind and my inner demons resurfaced, but what bubbled up most furiously was my anger, “no, you don’t get to do that. You don’t have the goddamn right to play that card and you know it!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He fake-pouted and chuckled to himself, “aww, did you have nightmares again?” He mocked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know why I left home, you know what happened to me, I confided those details with you because I trusted you!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Guess we’re all breaking promises tonight,” he shrugged, pulling a canteen presumably filled with alcohol out of his jacket pocket, taking a big swig of the golden-brown liquid inside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t promise you shit, you on the other hand,” I exhaled loudly, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> promised you’d stop drinking, you said-” he cut me off with a louder voice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you promised you wouldn’t hurt me!” His words were laced with venom.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have never done anything to hurt you and you know that,” I was hurt. Hurt that he would accuse me of something that important to me, to both of us. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh I know, I know about the times when I had my nightmares, the dark dreams where I lost everything I loved, where I lost you,” he paused for a moment to look at me longingly and pitifully, “I could feel you tossing and turning in bed, but you never did anything, you never helped me, you never held me, you never hugged me tightly and soothed me and told me that everything was going to be okay, like-” he hesitated, “like Pepper used to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I felt my soul crush, he compared my to her, he said she was better, the woman that left him when he needed her most, when he was in need of someone to lean on, she packed up and left, allowing me to fill in the gap, to help him build himself from the ground up again. But yet here he was, asking me to be more like her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you know why I didn’t do anything? Because I couldn’t,” his face furrowed in confusion, “I had my own nightmares, Tony, my own demons. My own memories that I wish more than anything to be able to shove into a deep dark hole and never have them resurface.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was quiet for a while, not showing any signs of apologising. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did I ever really mean anything to you, Tony? Or was I just a placeholder to keep the bed warm while you hopelessly wait for Pepper to come back? Did you ever mean a single word you said to me, the sweet nothings you whispered into my ear? Did you ever see the true meaning behind my every action for you, how I cared for you when you were down, how I loved you when you didn’t love yourself?” I was angry, frustrated with him, everything about him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know! Okay?! I’m broken, and it doesn’t matter how hard you, or anyone else ever tries, I can’t be fixed! And maybe all you’ve done is made it all worse! I wouldn’t know no matter how much you drill it into my head that I’m so oblivious to all the good things around me!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, it’s my fault, isn’t it? It always is because the </span>
  <em>
    <span>amazing </span>
  </em>
  <span>Tony Stark never makes a mistake, never fucks up, right? Because he’s the epitome of exception, the best of the best, perfection in human form? Well, guess what, Tony, you aren’t. You’re flawed, just like the rest of us normies, and sooner or later you’re gonna have to learn to own up to your shit like every goddamn one of us, because you’re no different than anyone else. You’re. Not. Special.” I stabbed his chest with my finger as I uttered those last few words</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wasn’t like this before us, before </span>
  <em>
    <span>you. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Maybe I would’ve been better off if I never met you. God, how I fucking wished I never met you!” He screamed in my face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That ended it for me, I was done with the fighting, the shouting, the blaming. I was exhausted and I didn’t have it in me to try, as much as I wanted to, to show him that I care about him, that I love- </span>
  <em>
    <span>loved </span>
  </em>
  <span>him. But if he didn’t want to try to listen, there was no use in me trying to force it on him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, well your wish has been granted,” I said dryly, “congratulations, you’ll never have to see me ever again,” with that, I turned on my heel and rushed up the stairs, desperate to leave the house as quickly as I could. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>I could hear the very moment he sobered up, the moment he realised what he’d done, the moment I heard frustrated shouting and the sound of glass shattering from below me. But I didn’t stop, I didn’t stop walking, I didn’t stop driving, I didn’t stop myself from leaving. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <b>
    <em>Tony </em>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>[11:07]</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Almost back x</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>[11:53 pm]</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m sorry</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I love you</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t mean what I said</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Any of it</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I can’t live without you </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Come back to me</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Please</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>[12:01 am]</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I need you</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
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